Island cleanup cause for cheer

While no cleanup can remove the shameful, bloody stain of history from Indian Island, 12 years of effort by the Wiyot Tribe to reclaim their sacred land from decade after decade of industrial pollution is nearing completion.

Nearly $2 million so far has been spent removing lead batteries, contaminated soil and other debris from the 275 acres Wiyot Tribe members regard as the center of their universe. The site is home to the tribe's World Renewal Ceremony, which has not been held since 1860, the date of the infamous Indian Island massacre.

In the years following the slaughter of sleeping Wiyot men, women and children, Indian Island was turned into a ship repair facility. Under new ownership, poisons seeped into the soil, and remains and artifacts were looted.

When the tribe began to buy back its island in 2000, the long reclamation began in earnest, sped up by the city of Eureka's decision in 2004 to return to the tribe more than 60 acres of the island.

Once the cleanup is finished, the tribe plans to reclaim the land as a ceremonial site.

The project has so far received funding from the Wiyot Tribe's Sacred Sites Fund, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Humboldt County Economic Development Division, the U.S. National Park Service, the Headwaters Fund, the Humboldt Area Foundation and the McLean Foundation.

The tribe remains $350,000 short on funds to complete its efforts -- but what has been accomplished so far through decades of perseverance is a remarkable achievement that deserves further support.